Nashville, Tenn. – Shea Morris threw two complete game shutouts against Austin Peay on Sunday in an Ohio Valley Conference doubleheader. The sophomore went 6.1 innings in game one holding the Lady Govs hitless before Lauren de Castro ended the no-hit bid. Tennessee State would win a pair of 5-0 ballgames to improve to 14-31 and 5-14 in conference play. APSU dropped to 15-24 and 6-15 in the OVC.

Morris held Austin Peay to one hit in the opener as she fanned 11 batters. Head coach Jeff Dabney gave the nod to Morris again in game two after the sophomore threw just 100 pitches, 75 for strikes, in game one. In the nightcap, Morris scattered six hits and two walks as she fired her fourth shutout of the season. The Lawrenceburg native struck out seven while tossing 118 pitches, 86 for strikes.

With the two wins, Morris moved to 10-16 on the year and now has 178 punch outs. The two shutouts also move her into a tie for third with six on the TSU career list.

In game one, Jennifer Givens put the Tigers on the board in the third inning. After reaching on a single and moving to second on a Kiarra Freeman ground out, Givens stole third base and created an errant throw that would allow her to score standing up.

Later in the inning, Audrey Sensing delivered a single to left to bring home Kacie Daugherty, who reached on a walk, making the score 2-0 after three innings.

The Tigers would add to the lead with two more runs in the fourth. Briana Roberts made the score 3-0 as she crossed home plate on a sacrifice fly by Daugherty. Two batters later, with bases loaded, Lindsey Burgess grounded out to first plating Givens from third.

Freeman closed out the scoring in the fifth inning with a single to left that brought home Ashley Haynes. Freeman, Givens and Haynes each finished the game with two hits apiece. Sensing and Tedra Alford each recorded a hit in the game.

In game two, the Tigers would give all she would need in the first inning. Givens and Freeman led-off the bottom of the first inning with back-to-back singles. The duo executed a double steal to give Daugherty runners in scoring position. The freshman followed with a single of her own that Givens would score on to take an early 1-0 lead.

The score would stay the same until TSU added four insurance runs in the fifth. Haynes opened the inning with a double to right center and scored a batter later as Kate Morris laid down a sacrifice bunt. Morris reached safely as the attempt to throw her out wound up in right field. Morris took second as Haynes touched home.

With bases loaded, Alford hit a ground ball to third for what seemed to be the final out of the inning. Freeman was able to use her speed and avoid the tag and reached third safely to extend the inning. On the play, Givens scored for the fourth time of the day and pushed the score to 3-0. Burgess followed with a hard single landing just inside the leftfield line to plate Daugherty and Freeman.

The Tigers used the four unearned runs to take a 5-0 lead.

APSU had started to show life as they threatened in the third, fourth, and fifth, but Morris and the Tigers would shut down the Lady Govs forcing them to strand five runners over the period. Mel Pavel led off the top of the sixth with a blast to centerfield. Jennifer Givens broke back and leaped as she reached the wall to catch and bring back a would-be home run for the APSU catcher. The catch ignited TSU to sit down APSU in order to save the game.

Freeman added three more hits in the nightcap as Givens, Daugherty, Burgess and Haynes each registered a hit.

Kayla Davidson and Marissa Lake each had two hits for APSU.

TSU will host Tennessee Tech in a three-game OVC series on April 27-28. Both days will begin at 1:00 pm with a doubleheader on Saturday and a single game on Sunday.